Steam
by The 483
Summary: A new student arrives at the beginning of the gangs third year at Yokai Academy. This of course leads to new problems, conflict, and questions. What is he, Why does he make so many uneasy with his presence, and why does Kurume not seemed troubled by him at all? Original character, blah blah stuff, teen for some mild violence and maybe swearing where appropriate
1. Chapter 1

_Rosario + Vampire: Steam_

_By: The 483_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Rosario + Vampire**_

_**Spoiler Alert: Some spoilers, Light to moderate, are contained herein.**_

**After Season 2 of the Anime, and will just be the usual pairing a cast member off with a "New and exciting" (Read: Heavily Clichéd and overpowered) classmate who, for some reason, does not show any sign of existence until now. So, I'll see how this comes out, and update you as necessity arises.**

**Chapter 1: New arrival**

The new school year began not with a bang, but a whisper. Friends separated over the brief hiatus between school years met before class to swap lies and overblown boasts of what they did over the break. The usual crew of crude and vulgar thugs eyed the incoming freshmen, already quartering out the fresh victims they would be bullying this year. Girls squealed and giggled, Freshmen looked scared, Upperclassmen looked bored, a Bogman and a Chupacabra were playing hacky sack with a Bridge Troll and a Zombie. Everything was as normal as it ever was within the confines of Yokai Academy.

And all of the overwhelming normalcy meant the Tsukune Aono was, as soon as he was noticed, surrounded and beset upon on all sides buy his harem of admiring, buxom, and volatile young women. Kurumu Kurono traded barbs, slurs, insinuations, and outright insults with the seemingly torpid Mizore Shirayuki, while the diminutive Yukari Sendo occasionally added her own words, and a brass pan or two, to the battle as she felt it was warranted. Meanwhile, Miss Moka Akashiya stood patiently and silently beside Tsukune, waiting for the time when the other three would become distracted enough for her to sneak him off.

While the 4 girls all considered themselves bitter rivals in the pursuit of Tsukune's heart, they were all considerably close friends, as well, the trials and tribulations they had endured during the preceding 2 years forging bonds that would likely hold even after Tsukune finally realized which of the girls he truly fancied. Unless of course, the girls got a little to careless in their attempts to win him over, and killed him in the process, but such was just the cost of love.

Mizore, who happened to be standing with her back to the school, facing the slope leading down and into the forest the bordered the academy's grounds, leading off to the ocean cliffs to her left, and deeper forest to her right, was the first to notice the... not commotion, but the cessation of activity of the students gathered along the broad path. Her own rebuttals trailed off as she watched, Yukari picking up the slack and mounting and attack on Kurume in her place. All the faces of the students were turned, looking at something further down the hill. Something, that, judging from the slow rotation of the students head, was coming up the drive. A few more seconds, and a head, then houlders, then body appeared, strolling up the path. Mizore surveyed him with the critical eye of an accustom voyeur.

He was handsome, in a jagged, hard sort of way, with shoulder length hair that had the easy set of someone who had just gotten up. He had smooth, pronounced but not pop out features, was fairly tall, and had the comfortable, powerful stance of an athlete. But his walk was so self confident it almost radiated a sense of cockiness. It said, "I own this place, but don't care how you use it" and would have been irritating if it wasn't for the kind brown eyes and genuinely genial smile he flashed as he surveyed the crowd. The overall air he gave off was that of someone who is in charge, but willing to play second fiddle to anyone who wishes to take a swing at the big chair. Mizore took an isntant dislike of him, and watched him, her face impassive as he continued forward. Her dislike increased when he got close enough for her to sense, but she could feel nothing from him. Not like with Tsukune, who had no Monster energy, or like the others around her, who's signals were masked in their human forms, but a dead spot. From a monster energy stand point, it was like he was not even there, just a slightly hostile feeling that played across the back of her mind, like an unseen sound in unknown darkness.

She might have imagined it, but Moka seemed to become slightly uncomfortable, and Tsukune frowned, looking apprehensive all of a sudden, the hair on the back of his neck standing up slightly. But she caught sight on Ginei, hiding over in the bushes with his camera, and even his attention had been caught by this man, distracting him from a spectacular Tri-panty photo opportunity, and giving him a look like scarred dog. Mizore turned her focus back to the man, who had reached the flat at the top of the drive, and was scanning the crowd in a confident, but slightly nervous fashion. The man's eyes panned from the left, crossed her own without really seeing her, and continued on... then stopped suddenly, and panned back, stopping and seemingly starring right into her own. She held the gaze, and the man got a brief look, like a pleasant surprise was discovered, and, cupping a hand to his mouth, called over.

"Oi, Chesty, is that you?" He had a deep voice, layered with a faint kind current, and the unmistakable thrum of a commanding personality. It made the question sound like a statement. To Mizore's, and indeed everyone else's surprise, Kurumu's shoulders hunched, and a look that Mizore didn't recognize etched across her face. She sputtered and looked stricken, talking to herself.

"Oh... no... it couldn't... not here..." She turned slowly, and faced the new comer. "Oh... jeez... it is..." The man gave a smile of pure pleasure, and waved heartily.

"Hey, Kurumu! Long time." He moved closer, and her shoulders slumped like she had been defeated.

"Yeah." She said, with a sigh, but there was an undercurrent of happy under it. "I see you're still an asshole." His smile brightened, rather than faltered. "What brings you here?" The other cocked his brow inquisitively.

"Really? Two years and that's all I get? Get over here and act like you are happy to see me." He held open his arms. Kurumu looked back over her shoulder, smiled sheepishly, then walked forward, giving the guy a hug, which he returned in a friendly manner.

"Alright," she said, pushing slightly back, "It is nice to see you. Anyway, how'd you finally end up here with us?" He smiled, and leaned back slightly.

"Oh, my father decided I should get in some time with a more diverse peer group." Kurumu chuckled softly.

"So your mother told him you werre coming here, now." He smiled distantly.

"Yep." He shifted expression ,and gestured at all of her with his arms. "But, look at you! You look even prettier then when you first left for school." His features softened into a look of disappointed. "I was hoping to see you during the breaks last year, but I guess I wasn't home at the same time as you were." She waved it aside.

"Oh, no. Actually, I never did come home. I was... otherwise engaged." She fabricated the last half after a short pause, with the force behind it that said it was not to be discussed. He shrugged.

"Oh, well. My loss, I suppose." He looked slightly hesitant, then added: "I wouldn;t want to drag you away from your friends here, but I admit I was happy to see a familiar face, as this will be my first year at the Academy, and I hoping maybe you could show me around before the morning classes begin?" Kurume tapped her chin as shee did the math, trying to figure out if the esteem she would gain from escorting her old friend would be worth the time she would lose on badgering Tsukune.

"Let me see your Schedule." She demanded, holding out her hand. He fished it quickly out of his pocket, and handed it to her. She browsed it quickly. "Hmmm... you have Miss Nekonome for homeroom, just like me, so...I suppose I can." She tossed the paper back at him, and turned back to her group as he snatched it deftly out of the air.

"Hey, Guys. This is my old friend Dominic Farnsworth. We grew up in the same Circle, and I am going to show him around a bit before class." She looked back over to Dominic. "Dom, this is Yukari, Mizore, Moka, and _my_ Tsukune." She stated, pointing to each in turn. His eyes flicked to each in turn, narrowing slightly as they landed on Tsukune, but it was such a small thing, Mizore was the only one who noticed, because she was looking for any excuse to further dislike this man. HE gave a polite bow.

"Nice to meet you all..."

"Anyway," Kurume continued, cutting him off, and pointing at Mizore and Yukari, "this conversation is not over." She turned, and Dominic offered his arm, which Kurumu ignored, and stalked off, letting him follow her as she rounded the main building of to its left side.

"well... that was... interesting." Yukari said softly, after both were out of site.

"Yeah," Moka agreed, "Kurumu was sure anxious to get him away from us."

"Well, class does start in about 15 minutes. She probably just want to do her job and get to class early, so she can grab the seat next to Tsukune before we get there." Yukari supposed.

"Maybe," Tsukune agreed, "but did anyone else get a bad vibe off of that guy?"

"Actally, yes." Moka said, gravely.

"I didn;t notice anything weird." Yukari said, with a puzzled look to the other two. They all turned to look at Mizore, but she was already gone.

(...)

Having ducked out before they had vanished from sight, and owing to her stalkers knowledge of the less traveled access ways of the school, Mizore was out of contact with the suspicous man for a scant minute, before she was pacing them, listening without really hearing the pointless talk of two old friends catching up. This continued for some minutes, until they reached a vaccent area dotted with mesh tables,the ground and surface coated with a blanket of the freshly fallen autumn leaves. Kurumu dusted a few leaves of the top if a table, and sat down on it, still chuckling over some innocuous comment the man had made.

Mizore tried to reason out why she disliked this scene. Not because she thought Kurumu was in danger. She knew she could handle herself against most opponents, and she did care; regardless of their catty attitudes over Tsukune, they were fairly close friends, even though it would be some time before either would openly say it. She thought it might be pride. She knew, on a point basis, that Kurumu was in some ways prettier then herself, even if that was just because the nature of what Kurumu was, but she did not feel she was so much prettier as to knock her out of the running just based on that factor. Mizore was not afraid to fight it out, but she would not accept winning by default. While the behavior these two displayed was not along the lines of the lovey-dovey stuff Moka was so natural with (in her pink haired form), there was still an angle of it that could lead to distracting Kurumu's efforts away from Tsukune. She would beat Kurumu to Tsukune's heart on her own terms, not because Kurumu surrendered.

That, coupled witth the odd, anxious feeling that seemed to waft off the stranger, and the fact that she could not detect any feeling of his Monster Energy off of him, added to her dis-ease.

Her mind cycled away from her rationalizing when it picked up on the conversation turning to something that she was interested in.

"So... Kurumu, when did you start hanging out with humans?" Mizore's heart hitched slightly at this, and judging by the look on Kurumu's face, hers had performed similarly.

"What?" Her voice quavered with shock, but didn't quite stutter. "Tsukune's not a human." The stranger gave a mollifying and exasperated smile.

"Come on, Chesty, you _know_ I tell that he is a human, just as I could tell that your other friends were a Vampire, Snow Woman, and Witch." He then looked conciliatory. "And, as a point of fact, I didn;t specify who I knew to be the human, you kind of gave it away yourself." Kurumu had her face pointed at her lap, hidden from the man, and Mizore tensed for action in case she needed backup. Suddenly, he looked surprised.

"Wait, you did _know_ that this boy is a human... right?" For the first time in her surveillance of this stranger, he looked genuinely uncertain. Kurumu was up, her claws pointed at his throat, her face lit with her inner fire.

"Yes!" She barked angrily. "I do know, and I don't care." Her voice shook with passion, but her claws were dead steady. He seemed impressed, but unworried, meeting her eyes calmly with his. "And I don;t care if we are friends, if you make _ANY_ trouble for him, I will... I..." She seemed to faulter, then, with a look of desperate recklessness, continued more forcefully, "I will ... I'll kill you." He remained quite, looking still untroubled, just staring into her eyes.

"Wow." He said, his voice carefully neutral. "Never thought I'd see you defending a human. He's one of your thrall?" She blushed slightly, but kept her claws pointed at his throat.

"No." Her answer was so quite Mizore had to read it on her lips. The man's brow cocked, and he seemed taken aback.

"Really?" She blushed a shade deeper.

"Really. I am going to win him over without my powers." Dominic smiled jovially, and pushed her claws out of his face, then wrapped her in a hug that surprised the hell out of her.

"Good for you! I am pulling for you." He let her go, an her claws shrunk back to nails. She was astonished.

"What... really?" He nodded emphatically.

"Yeah. Come on, chesty, you know I don't have any problem with humans. And I know you, too, and there is no way you would have actually fallen for this guy this hard if he wasn't a good sort. If you like him this much, you'll have to introduce me more formally, some time."

They continued talking for another minute, before walking off, but Mizore didn't follow. The shock of him being able know Tsukune was a human, and that Kurumu confirmed it, bothered her. She didn't trust the man at all, and would have to keep an eye on him. She backed deeper into the bushes, and headed for class.

(...)

Mizore had grabbed a seat in the back of the room, one behind where Moka sat, up against the wall under the widow, with Tsukune in front of her, Yukari in front of him, and Kurumu to Tsukune right. The new guy sat in front of her, and Mizore, from her vantage point, noticed that about half the other students halted after entering, starred hesitantly at the back of the new guy's head, and then took their seats, shaking their heads like they were trying to clear bad thoughts away. Others paid him no mind, and still others, mostly females, appraised him and liked the figures that came up. The Babble gradually died down as Miss Nekonome entered, her cheer smile faultering as she halted just inside the threshold. Her hair stood on end, her pupils contracted, her tail appeared and stuck out straight, and her ears made of hair solidified and went back. She blinked a few times, looke daround like a wary cat, focused her attention on the new guy, lingered for a second, and then her demeanor reasserted itself, and she cleared her throat as her features returned to normal.

"Hmm, excuse me." She did not elaborate, but smiled sunnily as she dropped her bag and took her place behind her desk. "Good morning, kids. I see plenty of returning faces, as well as a few new ones. Welcome, everyone. For those of you who do not know, My name is Miss Nekonome, and I shall be your Homeroom teacher for the year. Let's get started with roll call." She began to read the names, and paused when she hit a certain one.

"Dominic Farnsworth?" Her ears twitched, and her eyes flicked to the new man.

"Here." He answered, seeing nothing odd about the teachers behavior.

"Any chance you are related to a Gerald Farnsworth?" He looked surprised.

"Yes, Ma'am. My Father." Her face registered a look like two ideas suddenly connected, and she then smiled him.

"Well, is this your first year at Yokai?" He nodded. "Oh, excellent, I am sure you will love it here. Glad to have you."

"Thank you, Ma'am." She continued reading the roll, taking no notice of the odd looks the students shared.

(...)

Time passed rapidly, thing regaining a sense of normality after about two weeks. Kurumu spent quite a bit of time with Dominic during these weeks, but that mellowed after he began to meet more people, and Kurumu ceased being the only person he knew on campus, allowing her to reinvest her effort back into harassing Tsukune and thwarting any chance by the others to pair off with him for more than a few minutes at a time. Dominic gained a measure of popularity, his calm temper and moderate attractiveness gaining some friends. His marks were good, he was unceasingly polite, helpful to almost anyone who needed a hand, participate in a number of clubs, while not formally being a member of one particular, always waving of the invites he got by stating that his schedule was too unusual and changing to make commitments he might not be able to meet.

He even became a sporadic fixture among those vying for Tsukune. After about a month, his charm and geniality made him welcome by all but Mizore. He even became rather close to Tsukune, and while not a romantic rival, still ate up some of his time. But, Mizore, a reclusive and stubborn type by nature, refused to let herself be impressed, and staunchly nursed her dislike. She was coldly formal when forced to deal with him with her friends, but as it was not too different from her normal tone, no one noticed. All of the time, she kept the fear glowing in the back of mind. This guy knew Tsukune was human, it was only a matter of time until something bad happened. So, she decided she would have to take matters into her own claws, as the rest, _especially_ Kurume, saw no problems with him. It came to a head, and she decided he would have to be eliminated, and fast, about two weeks before Halloween. Watching from one of her accustomed stalking points, she saw Tsukune and Dominic, conversing happily, walking out into the orange and yellow forest, away from the school, about an hour before sunset. Unfortunately, she had other obligations that night, and was unable to follow. But, she had still kept her eyes open, and about a half hour after sunset, she saw Tsukune stumble back to his dormitory alone. It was not until the next day she discovered that he had received a number of scrapes and bruises, and even a sizable gash on a leg.

Tsukune expressed embarrassedly that it was simply the result of an accident, and that everything was fine, and, had it not been for Dominic's intervention, he would have been possibly worse off for wear. The other girls seemed to buy this fabricated story easily, but, having seen the two boys leave together, she knew something more sinister was afoot. And so, she decided that the time to act was now, before Tsukune, or one of her other friends, were seriously injured by this shyster.

Her plan was simple, she would lead him out into the forest on an excuse that she wished some aid from him, and take him down. Then, weakened and at her mercy, she would give him the option to leave, never to bother her friends again, or she would end him and his remains would be deposited into the ocean. While it was true that she did not know what firepower he would bring to the table, she was confident that she had the ability to hand anything short of someone of Moka's Vampire form. She got her chance that evening, about 15 minutes before sunset.

(...)

Tracking his motions after class was no issue. He had a short stint in the library, followed by some assistance he gave in setting up a complex shot for the Photography club, which involved holding one end of lattice work steady for an hour while a collection of girls were arranged upon it in an attractive pose. After that, some time spent in the pool and with clean up, and he was working his way to the Male Dormitory. She met him as he locked the pool areas gate.

"Hello, Dominic." She said, her deadpan voice giving no hit to either direction of her feelings. He looked up as the padlock snapped shut. As always, he decided that her greeting was meant to carry a pleasant current, and smiled his charming smile.

"Good Evening, Miss Shirayuki. How are you tonight?"

"I am well, thank you." She replied carefully, her lollipop dancing as she spoke. "I was wondering if you might help me with something?"

"Possibly. What do you need?" She held up a pair of 5 gallon plastic buckets.

"I was out in the forest the other day, when I noticed a patch of mushrooms fairly deep in. They looked weird, so I picked on and looked it up when I got back to campus, and it turns out they are a fairly rare breed of truffle." She smiled what she hoped was a shy smile. "I don't know if you know it or not, but I am a fairly proficient cook, and I thought it would be nice to make a surprise dish for Kurume and everyone with these truffles, and was wondering if you would help me gather some?" He smiled, throwing his green uniform jacket over his shoulder, and holding out his hand to take the buckets from her, which she handed over.

"Well, I don't know much about mushrooms myself, but I am good at carrying things. Lead the way, and I'll schlep whatever you need."

Ah, she thought to herself, they always fell for the cooking line. Idiot. So, she moved off into the forest, her unwitting prey following contentedly behind her. She had picked out a clearing far enough away from the school where the ruckus, if any, would not be noticed. She smiled to herself, happy with how easy her job was going to be. She would hit fast, neutralizing him before he could even think about raising a defense.

They walked for about ten minutes, weaving between roots and low handing boughs, mud holes and bramble patches, with her occasionally tossing back words expressing how close they were. When she reached the edge of the clearing she rushed a little ahead, so she would be at the outer edge by the time he made it inside.

Just like she imagined, the bolt of ice hit him in the chest, not fatally aimed, but still painful enough that he would not want to move. There had been no warning, he entered the clearing, and suddenly he had a chunk of ice hard as steel sticking out of his chest, the point buried between his ribs. The buckets fell from his hand and rolled away with a clatter, and he fell to his knees, his hands working ineffectually at pulling the dagger out. It was no use, as she had specially crafted this piece to be slick in the end to stick out, and could not be gripped well enough to be removed. The look of pained betrayal on his face was not as satisfying as she had imagined, but she would not be deterred now.

"As you may have figured out, I did not truly bring you out here to help me, but rrather because i do not wish to be disturbed." Her voice was not as strong as she would have liked. She was slightly nervous, but had already gone too far to try and reconcile, so all she could do was press her advantage. "From the first day you arrived, I have watched you manipulate and trick my friends into accepting you. I know that you somehow discovered that Tsukune is a human, and no doubt used this illicit knowledge to aid you in your aims. While you may have had Kurumu to aid you in deceptions, I will not allow it any longer. I saw the damage you inflicted upon Tsukune after taking him into the woods last night, no doubt because he refused participate in whatever vile thing you desired of him. This ends now. I am not without mercy, so I will allow you a chance to flee, and never bother us again." She sung her arm up, sprouting her razor honed ice claw and pointing to him. "Or you may refuse, and I will kill you."

His face was down, on hand still on the ice spike, his jacket having fluttered down into the roots of a tree at the edge of the clearing.

"You had better hope..." he muttered, his words starting softly, but growing tight and laced with additional pain as he continued. There was a sizzling sound, and it took a second for Mizore to find the source. It was the ice where his fingers clutched, sputtering as his fingers melted through the ice until he had a firm grim. "...that you have a lot more then this..." he pulled, and the shard popped free with a wet pop, and blood soaked the white shirt around the wound. "...in your arsenal if you think you are going to kill me." He looked up, his eyes having gone yellow with black slits for pupils. The, rising from his knees, his body began to change.

Shoulders broadened and muscles grew denser and more numerous. The front of his bloody shirt bulged as his chest swelled, the muscles straining the fabric. His skin took on a darker tone, a brownish red like cherry wood, and heavy bone talons grew from his fingertips. From just under his hairline, a pair of horns grew straight out for an inch or two, before bending upward at a 90 degree angle, each horn mounted about in line with his temples. Black, bat-like wings, bigger then looked necessary tore through the shirt on his back, and loomed, making him look even larger after the 6 inches he had grown in the transformation. And tail with a triangular tip flicked lazily back and forth, and he stood, looking regal in his full monster form.

She gave him no time to attack, launching herself in a panic inspired frenzy, slashing, clawing, and launching spines from the air, and up from the ground as she tried to get past his defense. He was fast, his limbs flowing to block her arm, or talons flashing and deflect her own claws in a spray of powered ice. But, she was just a hair faster, and eventually had opened enough of a lead to land a solid hit. Slicing inward, she cut across the indie of an arm. Following into a twirl, she soun, then slashed upward, her claws slicing crimson lines across the chest and tearing furrows out of the now tattered shirt. Batting the other arm away, she slashed again and again, him always managing to ward off just enough to avoid serious harm, but still taking considerable cuts. After another downward slash, leaving a good section of his skin crisscrossed with bleeding wounds, she reversed, backhanding him in the face with a heavy ice claw, spinning, shattering the right hand claw and forming stiletto blade, which she used the spin momentum to jam at his open chest.

The blade halted well short of its destination, the point intercepted by Dominic's hand, now a glove of fire, as it repelled the blade with heat. So, Mizore turned up her cold, and the blade crept forward, where in Dominic turned his palm into a hotter spot, until the ice began to slip back. Feeling the heat even though the wall of pure ice, Mizore added her other hand and gave it all she had. Dominic, anticipating it, did the same, and, with a crack like an explosion, the two opposing forces detonated in a cloud of instant light fog, covering the clearing as the two combatants were forced to break contact and were forced back a number of feet.

Mizore stood her ground, her head flicking back and forth, her claws twitching as each eddy in the wall of white particulate as it swirled around her. She wasn't able to see anything further than a foot from the inch of her nose, and all was quiet around her. A soft flutter off to her left alerted her, and she turned, ready to strike, when he flew in from the front, and buried a meaty fist in her gut, lifting her bodily off the ground. Her mouth opened, and spit spattered the ground, her feet dangling a full 2 feet of the ground, her insides already feeling bruised. He pulled back, then swung around so fast she didn't even drop, landing a back hand right at her center of mass, slamming her into the ground, and leaving a body shape indent in the ground. She lay on her stomach, trying to catch her breath, and felt his foot slide under her, and lift her into the air with a flick. Pivoting on his standing foot, he twirled, slamming her again with a straight kick and sending her spiraling into a tree, cracking the bark with a lound crack, and leaving her crumpled to the ground.

Bracing himself, he beat his wings in hard, long motions, using the air power to push the mist clear of the area. When the area was clear, he saw the tree, bent and cracked from the force of Mizore hitting it, but she was gone. She came from the right, up high, and landed a hammer fist across his face, ice blasting downward from the blow, and sticking to his head. As she hit the ground, she build a shelf ice at her feet and used it to push herself on her back into a slide between his legs, slashing his shins as she passed. Breaking the ice with one hand, he slammed a fist down where she would have been had she not continued to ride the slide, and fell, his feet having been frozen to the ground. Growling, he turned up the heat, melted off the boots, and lunged like an animal, slashing at her, and catching her clothing as she rolled away, tearing a chunk out of the back but missing the skin.

This led to another clawing, slashing bout with them swapping turns on offense and defense, each taking minor hits. She would block a low swipe, and return with an upward slash scratching a triple pair of lines across one of his shoulder. He would then parry a jab from her, taking a swipe at her middle and catching her in the side, tearing away cloth and leaving 4 lines of scarlet on her pale skin. This continued or a weary time, until both were tired, sore, and covered in the bloody shreds of what was left of their clothes. Mizore, losing stamina quicker than her larger opponent, was moving noticeable slower, and was beginning to feel panic tug at the back or her mind. And as many who are desperate choose to do, she made a gamble on a final all out attack.

After a slash hit the top of her chest, tearing open the rest of her shirt, she let it's force assist her in launching backward. Summoning a quartet of ice spines, she tossed them forward, exploding them into hundreds of needle sized thorns about four feet from her target, propelling all of the micro projectiles at her opponent. He moved his hands and arms to protect his face, and she rushed in, throwing a sheet of thin ice to bind his crossed wrists. She then delivered a quick flurry of weak jabs to his gut, falling backward as he brought his arms down, trying to clip her. Landing on her shoulders, Mizore rocked over onto her front, swinging her legs around and driving first a heel, then another into his unprotected feet, shooting flourishes of ice off his skull as she continued the rotation and threw herself to her feet. She then ran and jumped, curling, kicking out both feet into the center of his chest to try and bring him down on the ground. But he spread his wings, and she hit what felt like a stone wall, and fell back. There was a sharp crack as he splintered his wrist bond, and caught her ankle before she hit the ground.

With a heaving effort, he swung her bodily over himself, slamming her hard it the ground, winding her and knocking her dizzy. And like that, something triggered in her mind, and she had no more fight left. She was spent, knew she had failed, and was going to be killed by the one she had voided her own honor trying to kill. And as he sifted his grip on her ankle, she only hoped he wouldn't mention the cheap shot she had begun the battle with to whoever he told the story of their battle to.

After adjusting the grip on her leg, Dominic, enraged, threw her straight up as hard as he could, sending her a good 300 feet up. As soon as he released her, he crouched, wings spread high, legs coiled like powerful springs, before propelling himself straight up after her, catching up to her while she was still rising. Flipping upside down, one leg extended, he slammed her with a powerful kick, sending her straight back down faster then she had risen. Pulling back a fist, his hand and arm began to bleed liquid fire, and he gathered power to spear her form below with a lance of flame. She did not move, crumpled in the divot her impact had made in the soft earth. The recognition that his attack would doubtless kill her at this point floated through his brain, and he funneled and rerouted the buildup heat and vented it in all directions, making him explode like a micro nova, the light illuminating the tops of trees for hundreds of feet in the twilight of right after sunset, and being reflected by the bottoms of low laying clouds.

Suddenly tired in the aftermath of his victory, he let his wings fold open, and fell slowly, his wings torn by ice claws in a few places flapping like banners as he fell. Landing a few feet from her body, Dominic fell to his knees, his legs unable to hold him up at the jarring of landing. Slowly, as his human form took back over and he shrunk to its dimensions, he looked over the girl. A patch of sleeve from shoulder to elbow was the largest single piece of shirt she had left, the rest being a stringy and bloody mess barely holding together with random strings. He could see the scratches he had made on her white skin, and while most were shallow, some were still seeping, and blood was leaking from her hairline over her unconscious face. He sighed, struggling to rise, his own body having suffered far more laceration then hers. His shirt was completely gone, and most of his chest was torn to hell. It was a tough fight, and had she not weakened so quick near the end, it might have gone the other way. He stood shakily over her, making sure she was still alive, and after a minute of observation of her, laying on her side, he saw a sign of life.

Her breath left a thin layer of ice on the ground, like fogging a mirror. I chuckled slightly, thinking it was kind of cute. He sighed, trying to think of what he should do, and finally realized that he would have to carry her out. So, limping slightly, he retrieved his jacket, and wrapped her upper body in it. As much as he would have liked to indulge in getting a closer look at what she had to offer, he did consider himself better then that, in some small way, and decided this way, he wouldn't be tempted to "accidently" stare. He then picked her up, her cold form actually feeling kind of nice against his wounds, noting that even now, she was surprisingly light. Then, with a weary determination, he began to hobble back in the direction of the school, not at all looking forward to the length of the journey.

**End 1.**


	2. Wait, what?

_Rosario + Vampire: Steam_

_By: The 483_

_**Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to Rosario + Vampire**_

_**Spoiler Alert: Some spoilers, Light to moderate, are contained herein.**_

_**Note: Thanks to the Guest who reviewed. Thanks for the feedback. I really appreciate it. And yeah, I fought with myself over that line too, worried about how it would come across. I was hoping to try and accentuate the different types of Monsters, which I felt the Anime did a great job of utilizing, while also playing on the unabashed focus on the pure sexuality of the characters. I was trying to match the focus, which I saw as pretty girls being pretty.**_

_**And, yes, the urge to make the sole focus on the Original Character is hard to resist, but I will try and keep it interesting.**_

**Chapter 2: Wait, what?**

The world slowly and painfully built itself back into being around Mizore's consciousness. She was initially convinced that she had died, and this was the hereafter, but dismissed it as she became further aware of just how much she hurt. She explored her body mentally. She felt sore everywhere, but it all seemed to be the deeper pain of scratches and cuts, not the agony of burns, which she was far more sensitive too, due to her composition as a Snow Woman. This did not immediately make sense to her, as while she was not sure what type of monster he was, he was defiantly a fire elemental type, so she expected to have been burned at least a little, even if he had allowed her to live. She opened her eyes, squinting in the bright afternoon light. She found herself in the nurses room, laying on one of the soft beds facing the wall. She was clutching a man's green uniform jacket in her arms, and thought at first it must have been Tsukune's, but no... Tsukune smelled different. The reek on this jacket was muskier, with a hint of sulfur and smoke in its fabric. She rolled onto her back, still clutching the garment, having already forgotten about it in her search for answers.

The room was empty save for the bed next to her, where a heavily bandaged and unconscious Dominic Farnsworth was sprawled. The coverage of the bandages spoke to how much damage she had inflicted, and she felt a small twitch of pride down under the shame her tactics had piled on. The way humans killed one another in their world may not have mattered to the sentencing in their world, but there were a whole set of rules about propriety and honor in Monster world.

The Monster species of the world were an aggressive people, and thus had an aggressive culture. There was a time, far back in history, when monsters were little more than feral animals. But much like the humans, they had slowly evolved a complex society. But their aggression still fueled much of their motivation, which was why strength was such an admired attribute in their world. On the small scale, it showed with how when it came to trouble; the Vampire Version of Moka was looked to lead the others, because she was the strongest.

But that was also why schools like Yokai Academy were so important. By teaching them to blend with the far more numerous and seemingly even more bestial humans, it created a better opportunity for everyone involved to live happier, more productive lives, rather than petty and costly constant wars of the Old Order. The three Dark Lords and their backers had chosen this path, and it did seem to have created the best age for monster kind in recorded history.

Of course, some monsters still enjoyed screwing with the humans; the number of documented Big Foot, Ghost, and other such "creature" sightings were not uncommon, and usually either a planned prank or a drunken mishap.

But within their own world, there was still a clear cut set of rules judging conduct. By choosing not to end her life, it opened up a whole new world of possibilities, all of them unpleasant. There would have been no ill repercussions if he had killed her, it being not only permitted by the way he was challenged, but expected, especially given her cowardly actions. More likely than not, he would be chastised for not taking the appropriate action. And now, having let her live, the best she could probably hope for was to get the damage sustained repaid after they had both had a chance to heal, as an attempt to discourage future incidents.

Looking down at her own body, she found her bandage coverage considerably less, but still far from ideal. She was interrupted from further inspection as the school nurse walked in, carrying her lunch, and noticed Mizore was awake.

"Oh, you are awake." She gave a soft smile, and shuffled to her desk, depositing her load before returning. "You had us worried for a while there."

"What happened?" She asked. The last thing she remembered was looking up, seeing flame flowing from the Monster Dominic's skin, and then the sensation of heat and light as she lost consciousness.

"Well, about two days ago, the boy in the next bed carried you from the forest, and with the assistance of some other students, were brought here. You've been unconscious since you were brought in."

"Everything hurts... how bad is it?" The Nurse picked up the chart clipped to the end of her bed, and examined it with a skilled eye. "Well, you took a number of abrasions and lacerations, but nothing too deep or serious, save a rather long cut you took at your hairline. Superficially, all of that should heal up fine and quickly. A few fingers are broken, along with your right forearm, and your left hip had become dislocated, but we repaired that while you were unconscious. The worrisome part is the trauma you took internally. Some passive scans show heavy bruising to your stomach and other central organs. Whatever it is that hit you, hit you hard, and I would guess a number of times."

"Yeah, that sounds about right. Who's Jacket is this?" She asked, not moving, because that hurt. She was still clutching it to her chest. The nurse inclined her head to Dominic. Mizore was not surprised, but did not release her grip.

"When you were delivered here, you were wrapped in it. While you didn't have to many serious cuts, there wasn't much left of your shirt and sweatshirt. I think even calling them tatters is being generous." The last she added to herself, as if she was recording it in a log book. She shook her head, and gave a smile that conveyed she was going to do something unpleasant but necessary. "Now, I am glad you are awake. Had you been out much longer, I would have started worrying about concussions and other unpleasant options. So, with the trauma your abdomen has taken, I don't want to chance and heavy food that may cause a violent reaction, so I am going to get you some mild soup mixed with some herbal medication. Do you think you can manage a spoon?"

"Of course..." Mizore started, lifting her hands. Agony burned through her right arm as she tried to move it, sending thrills of fiery pain up her shoulder and into her back, and she gasped. The nurse looked worried, but Mizore gritted her teeth and waited till the pain sunk from unbearable to merely throbbing. That was when she noticed that she was only clutching the jacket with her left arm. Her right was splinted and tapped to her chest so she wouldn't jostle it. She just had to remember not to try and move it, and with pain that bad, she wouldn't need many reminders. The bone must have cracked after he kicked her to the ground, probably landed on it, or maybe even by the kick itself, but she could not recall.

Moving her left arm, she let the jacket go, and saw that 2 fingers were splinted, but thought she could manage a spoon well enough.

"Yeah, I think I can manage a spoon." The nurse nodded, and moved the bed into a sitting position. Mizore grunted as the change in position started a burning pain in her gut, but did her best to ignore it. She was able to keep the soup down, but it burned like molten glass in her injured gut. As soon as the nurse wasn't looking, she dipped a finger in it, and cooled it to a more acceptable temperature. After that, it only burned like heavily spicy food. She found out the fun part after she finished, and had to be helped into the restroom. Had she not been warned what to expect, she theorized she might have been scared of the amount of blood she left behind. But, the nurse was optimistic, in view of the amount of trauma her kidneys and other soft organs had taken, about it, so Mizore decided to trust her judgment. After she had been helped back into the bed, she was completely exhausted. The nurse applied a sedative, and told her she would feel better when she awoke.

(...)

The nurse was correct, but only partially. It was evening when she awoke, judging by the dark from the window, and the softly glowing lights in the wall sconces. While her wounds did feel better, he stomach dropped as she noticed that Dominic was also awake. Having been unconscious, and then sedated, she had not had time to think of what she would have to say now, because in a optimal situation, one of them would no longer be alive.

"Hey there, how are you feeling?" The question knocked her out of her furious thoughts, and completely derailed train of thought to the point where she was unable to answer, and sat in an awkward silence. After letting the moment stretch until he was fairly sure she wasn't going to answer, he continued. "All right, then, I take it you still hate me, which, at this point, I can fully understand." Hate him? Well, she wouldn't go that far. Emotional conviction didn't really enter into it. All that it was is that he was a threat, and needed to be eliminated before he could do any real damage to the social structure she fit into. But she was unable to interject, because he was still talking. "So, basically, I need to say that I am sorry."

Her head swiveled to face him so fast you could almost hear a click.

"Wait...what?" Her voice was its usual soft, misty, almost dethatched tone, but had risen in pitch an octave to match the widening of her eyes.

"Er... I said... Sorry?" He was hesitant, almost stuttering, and all the borderline arrogance that usually marked his demeanor was gone, which for some reason she couldn't fathom, unnerved her.

"I tried to kill you, and you are apologizing to me?" Her voice was shrill, well, as shrill as it ever got, which was not much, but still enough to make the man flinch like he had been struck. He rubbed he back of his head apologetically.

"Yeah... See, I knew from the beginning that you really did not like me. But rather then nip it in the bud and talk to you about it, I let Kurumu talk me down. She said you were just standoffish and kinda cold by nature, and that you'd just need some time to warm to me, and then everything would be fine." He looked genuinely remorseful, and if she had not been bristling from Kurumu's alleged remarks, she would have felt bad. "I had forgotten that this place isn't like my previous schools, and never should have allowed it to carry on to this point regardless. I really am very sorry." Her curiosity was tweaked, and shame as well, to the point where the anger she had just felt was completely forgotten.

"What do you mean, we're not like your last school?" He got an expression that was an odd mix of embarrassment and pride, like a child who got caught doing something they weren't supposed to be doing, but was never the less impressed with how long they had gotten away with it.

"Well," he said, tuning his head slightly away, "up until the last year, I have only ever attended human schools." Mizore conceded to herself that this would excuse some odd behavior, but not something as strange as what he was currently doing.

"O...kay... but what does that have to do with our situation?" He looked back, and cleared his throat, regaining a thread of composure in dealing with a conversation topic he knew how to pontificate on.

"A lot, actually. You see, in the human world, when two people have a disagreement, they either let the bad feelings fester under the surface and act rudely to one another, or confront the other and talk over what is troubling them. And walking around here, while I intellectually knew this was NOT a human school, that this was a part of the Monster World, it never really emotionally sank in, and I pretty much forgot that, when 2 people in the monster world have a problem, they fight. What's important is, that in the human world, a pair in conflict almost never comes blows unless one of them is actively trying to bring it there."

"Alright, I can understand that. But, I still don't get why you are apologizing to me over it." His face flickered quickly to a look that almost conveyed an impression that she was being stupid, before it cleared into one of pained delicacy.

"Because I should have either tried to convince you I was alright at the beginning of when I started to be accepted within your group, or brought it to a showdown, rather than let your hatred simmer until you honestly felt you needed to kill me. I should not have allowed that, my parents raised me better than that." Mizore looked incredulously at him (though her face hardly showed it), semi-speechless at lengths that he was going to try and make himself look like the bad guy. But she was saved from responding as one of the things she had been fearing since she woke up still alive happened.

The door to the Sick room burst open, and Kurumu stalked in, murder in her eyes, as a lining of lead dropped in Mizore stomach. Kurumu looked over both of them, her mouth twitched at what she saw, and then turned her full anger upon Dominic.

"And here. You. Are." She punctuated her words with little noises of angry, her fists on her hips. "Not even two months, an already you are getting into brawls." He kept his face blank, still holding the book he had been reading when Mizore had woken, and that he had turned his attention from to talk to her. He made it look like all was normal, and that he was patiently waiting for Kurumu to quit interrupting his leisure time. Judging by the pulse that started throbbing in her temple, she was irritated by his attitude.

"Look at you! Look at you!" Her voice edged from explosively sad to angry as she repeated it. "You are torn to hell, and Mizore too!" Her eyes flicked over to her, and Mizore read concern there. "I know you can't stay out of trouble, but you don't need to go dragging her into it too. What did you do to her?" At the last sentence, her tone changed to a cold accusation. His tone matched hers in chill, but his was low instead of loud.

"Why do you assume I did it?" She gave a savagely triumphant smile, her teeth barred.

"Because I know you. Because you act like this instead of defending yourself, to try and throw me off. What did you do? Obviously you hurt her. But did you do something creepy? I'll bet you did! What the hell did you do, you creep!" She quickly egged herself from speculative into frenzy, pointing a finger at him on the last word, it having grown into a claw. Rather than explode back at her, Dominic's face clouded, and he slumped, seeming to deflate. His voice was soft, and carried a hurt that almost sounded convincing.

"Ok, Kurumu. You've hurt my feelings. Will you leave and let me get some rest now, please." He didn't look at her, her face twitching as it tried to jump between too many different looks at once. He added, even more quietly to himself: "To think my oldest friend could think such horrible things for no reason." He added a quaver that suggested that tears were not far, and Kurumu's manic facade broke, and she looked shamed and contrite.

"I am sorry, Dominic. We've just all been worried, and I guess I worked myself up into a tizzy over it."

Mizore watched quietly, her stomach filling with more lead the longer the conversation stretched, and anxiety as she wanted to get the confession over with before the strain grew unbearable. Under that, however, she was actually impressed at how well he was able to manipulate Kurumu and get her to dance between so many emotional states so quickly, while still, to her eye, remaining calm and untroubled. He gained a few more respect points with her for this, because other then chasing Tsukune's affection, stalking, and freezing stuff, screwing with Kurumu was one of her favorite past times, and she felt she was looking at an artist, as even now that he had won, he was still working her.

"You were worried?" He gave a timid semblance of what was referred to, in the human world, as "Doe Eyes" and Kurumu didn't even have the will left to bluster and try and push it off.

"Yeah," she gave a small nod, all her anger gone and replaced by concern. "When you and Mizore didn't show up in homeroom yesterday, and we heard later that you two were taken to the infirmary the previous night from the forest in really bad shape, we were all really worried.

"Well, then I guess I can forgive you. I am sorry to have made you worry, Kurumu." Mizore picked up a slight twang of sincerity at this. Kurumu gave a weak smile, and sat at the foot of his bed, so she could face both of them at the same time.

"It's alright. But what happened? I talked to some students that said they found you, stumbling out of the forest, bloody and carrying Mizore, but they couldn't tell me what happened." A lump threatened to close off Mizore's throat and she wanted to scream as her deeds were about to be unveiled. Dominic seemed to brighten, and smiled, and Mizore thought she might go crazy. She thought of the disgust Kurumu and Moka and Yukari, and _especially_ Tsukune would feel at her cowardly actions and wished she could just disappear.

"Well," Dominic stared, and she pulled up her knees and buried her face in her arm as she wrapped it around them. "I was out in the forest, right around sundown, as you know like to do."

"I've never known that." She said.

"Well, now you do. Don't interrupt me. Anyway, I was out for my walk, enjoying the calm, when I hear this commotion. So, as I am wont to do when I hear a commotion, I go to investigate. And what do I find? This one," he hooked a thumb at Mizore, who had lifted her head of her arm, and was staring in shock at what he was saying, "was engaged in battling a positive horde of feral Merpeople." Mizore was so stupefied that all she could do was gape as he wove his entirely fictitious account of what took place.

"Naturally, as I watch her cutting down some of the 20 or so assailants, and see even more mount the seaside cliff, and join the fray. "Excuse me, but may I join in on your glorious battle with these clearly non-sentient fish people, and help you smite them?" I say, where upon Mizore looks down upon me after a swift swipe leaves another attacker without a head. She shrugs, and says "sure," and so I gleefully leap into the fray."

And, for the next 10 minutes, Dominic wove out of thin air a tale so outlandish and purely insane that both girls could do naught but stare open mouthed. He seemed to be having fun, "recalling" the fight in greater detail the longer he talked. But Mizore was in no state of mind to be able to appreciate the stream of free-form bull$%&# he was spinning, as she was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

"...so I pulled the spear out of my side, and beat the blighter to death with it, before swiveling and hurling it through his chum, a few meters away. When I turned back, Mizore was down, so I burned a few that were milling around, picked her up, and flapped my way up to about 200 feet before I remembered that a good area of my wings had been torn up, and made an emergency crash landing. But, they did not pursue, so I was able to stumble back to the school, where a couple of students helped us to here."

(...)

Dominic was almost too pleased with himself. Judging by the open mouths and wide eyes, (and skeptical look in Kurumu's eyes) he figured he could manipulate Kurumu in just the way he wanted, to answer her question without answering it at all. Now if Mizore could just keep quiet until Kurumu left, everything would be fine.

"You... You expect me to believe that?" Kurumu sputtered explosively, the words dripping with incredulity. He could have kissed her for giving him the perfect set up. He narrowed his eyes slightly, and said in a dead neutral voice: "Having known you for as long as I have, I don't really have any expectations of you." The delivery was just rude enough, but still ambiguous enough to trigger her to be both irritated and confused. And, most importantly, she forgot what she had been trying to discover, and a more reasonable version of his story was accepted.

"And just what the hell do you mean by that!?" She yelled, growing pink in the cheeks.

"I mean that it's a good thing you are pretty." Her eye twitched, as his tone told her exactly what he meant, and she had to muster all of her willpower to refrain from slapping him. After a short period, she let her breath out in a hiss.

"Jeez, why are you such a jerk? I just came to make sure you and Mizore were okay." Dominic arched a brow.

"Oh, and the part where you accused me of being a sex criminal?" She looked put out.

"I said I was sorry about that. Besides, Mizore looked so sad when I came in, I figured it had to be something crazy that happened." Dominic turned his nose up at her.

"Very well, you are forgiven. But you can forget about me asking you to come to the Halloween dance with me, now." It took 4 seconds for his words to register.

"What? I don't even want to go with you."

"No, you _can't_ go with me, because I won't have you." And thus, the argument devolved into a game each trying to force their own view of the situation over the objections of the other. Things were going so very well, that Dominic was gaining confidence that phase two of sweeping this mess under the rug would go over smoothly as well.

The fact that Kurumu was the first to come and see them was better luck then he deserved. While she wasn't stupid by any means, she was, he felt, the easiest to distract. Which meant, by the time Moka, Yukari, or Tsukune made it here, they would have already heard about the scuffle second hand from Kurumu, and thus be that much easier to persuade of a lesser degree of the story he told. His father, a wellspring of advice from a very long, very active life, gave him some very valuable advice about lying.

"Telling a good life is like cutting material for use in a house. It is always better to start with the biggest piece you can, and have to shave it down afterwards, then to cut it too small. Like wood, a lie can always be whittled down, but never re-expanded."

So, in that vein, he had spun a ridiculously epic tale, and it would be whittled down into a believable size by retellings, and the truth he wanted to conceal would be safe and sound, away from nosy people. Kurumu was perfect, whereas Moka would likely have worked on Mizore first, Tsukune would have had a confession hurled at him, and Yukari would have asked too many questions. Hearing the story from Kurumu meant that all he would have too do was agree with whatever they provided him with, or reduce the scope of their queries by insisting that Kurumu had exaggerated it.

"...because I don't even need a fall back guy, because whoever I chose to accompany me, would be completely unable to resist my charms." Kurumu finished smugly, like she had be reciting a basic universal fact. Dominic was about to add a backhanded compliment, when a small voice beat him to it, and both of them turned to face Mizore, shock on their faces.

"I would go with you." Mizore's face looked like she did not realize she had spoken, and for a few seconds in the stunned silence, her face remained passive. Then, a slight blush entered her cheeks. Dominic, surprised at her assistance in confirming the story, was pleased. If she would be seen socially with him, it was all the more unlikely to seem as if they had had any quarrel.

"Oh... umm... well, then... Miss Shirayuki, would you do me the privilege of allowing me to escort you to the dance?" Her blush brightened, and she gave a small nod, which elicited a lopsided grin from Dominic. Unexpected, but pleasant.

"What? Why would you want to go with him?" She turned her head, a mixture of odd feeling swirling. Partly, Mizore knew this would bug Kurumu.

"Well, I figure with Tsukune having to decide from one of the four of us, this way, in the long shot that it isn't me he asks, I will still have a date." Her voice was still low, and a little uncertain. "Besides, if Tsukune does ask me, I can always cancel on Dominic." Dominic, happier still with the added distraction that Mizore herself had provided, gave a satisfied huff.

"Yeah, Kurumu. A maybe is still better then a no." He was not certain why this irritated Kurumu to the extent that it did, but he wasn't foolish enough to pretend he knew how women's minds worked.

"You are such a loser." She spat, crossing her arms.

"Yeah, but unlike you, this loser has a date to the dance." She held out a hand, and rose.

"Whatever." She turned to Mizore, and her face softened. "Anyway, _Mizore_," she added a lot o emphasis to illustrate that she was talking solely to her, "I am glad you are going to be okay. The others were tied up tonight, but they promise they will come visit soon."

"Thanks." She replied, still not facing Kurumu, who then turned, pointedly ignored Dominic, and left the sick room, letting the door close roughly behind her. Dominic let out a pleased sigh, and though that maybe he should take up acting after a performance like that.

"Ah, poor Kurumu." Mizore had already looking over at him, confusion and a little anxiety visible on her eyes, and just a little at the corners of her mouth.

"Why?" She asked, her voice unsteady. Dominic, hoping she would just drop the subject completely, chose to answer the question he wished, rather than the one she had actually been asking.

"Because she is a sweet girl. Don't get me wrong, she's a delicious little sexpot, and I do not doubt I myself would be able to resist for too long were I to find myself as her desire." Mentally he amended that he would be on that like a fat kid on a dropped cupcake, but he knew he would never be given the opportunity, and was not remorseful over it. "She can't help but be well built and sexy, that's in her blood. It's just rotten luck she had to have such a good soul, too." He sighed. "Her biology says screw, but her heart says love. The Egg only knows how she managed to keep herself sane this long, with the way her mother is." He clouded up slightly, a sad smirk on his lips. "I feel kind of sorry for her, and hope she finds a good one when she finally does land her catch." And, he added, if one that took advantage of her nature and darkened the bright light in her eyes, he had better hope that Dominic never found them.

Mizore, confused at first, caught up and retried.

"No. Why did you tell her that lie?" Dominic swore to himself, silently urging her to just drop the subject already.

"That was because, if people are going to know how badly I got my ass kicked, when I say "you should see the other guy" I want it to be an tale of massive badassery where I am not actually the villain." Now, even though she was still concerned, a look of irritation crept across her face. Damn it, she wasn't going to let it drop.

"No. Why did you not tell her what really happened?" He sighed explosively, and had to breathe deep to keep from snapping at her. This is why you couldn't do favors for girls.

"Look, Mizore. What happened between us out in the woods, was intensely personal, and as there are no other witnesses, I would prefer it to stay that way. As far as I am concerned, it is nobody else's damn business what happened, and I am satisfied with outcome, and would now like to forget it ever happened."

"But... Why?" He wanted to rage, but glancing at her, and misreading the look in her eyes, thought she was near tears. He sighed again, but a little more softly.

Dominic believed that a part of living a happy life came from knowing and being honest with oneself. One way in which he worked toward this, was by examining his motivations for doing just about anything, in order to determine a general estimate on why he acted the way he did. And, taking a sampling of acts he preformed and correlating the data, he seemed to find a average answer for motivation as such:

IF(girl = pretty) THEN (I = do nice thing for girl).

IF(Girl pretty) THEN (I = feel guilty for vanity, and do nice thing for girl).

IF(Guy) THEN (I = don't care, do whatever).

That general variation, he found, covered a majority of his interactions. And, as in this case, (Girl pretty), his motivation to forgive, forget, and make her smile was increased by a significant factor.

But, this being a more complex case than usual, his reaction had additional filters applied, such as the reasoning behind her actions, his own culpability in allowing himself to miss the obvious and get drawn into this situation, the amount of a beating he had visited upon the girl, and possible peer response all factored in as well. While it was not verboten, he theorized that killing another student over something petty like this was likely to be frowned upon. Not to mention that Kurumu, Tsukune, Moka and Yukari personally would likely find that solution distasteful.

Not to mention what his mother would have done to him if he had allowed that outcome. He physically paled and had to shift his attention away from that thought before he got queasy.

But, of course, he was not about to tell her all of that, so he spun up some plausible stuff using the parts he wasn't ashamed of.

"... Well, you said you did it because you were worried over how much pull I had on Kurumu. Not knowing our history, I can kind of see why it might worry you. I liked that. I worry about her, and the fact that she has friends like you looking out for her to this degree makes me happy. Like I said, Kurumu has a good heart, and that will, at some point, come at odds with her nature, and she will get hurt. But if she has friends as loyal as you are, I'll know she'll have a shoulder to lean on, even if I am no longer around, when she eventually does get her heart broken." He gave a weak, almost wistful smile. Mizore, caught off guard by the sudden change in the surrounding fell, blushed slightly, and quickly changed the subject.

"But that wasn't all. You also hurt Tsukune." He looked so genuinely surprised at this, she felt a flicker of doubt.

"What? Why would I hurt him? I actually enjoy his company. It's nice to have another guy who knows the Human world around. Smooth's the transition." But straight denials would not get him what he needed to know, so he supplemented. "I am unaware of doing what you claim, but give me the situation, and I'll see if I can ease your mind."

"The other night, I saw the two of you go into the forest outside the female dormitory, and a while later,, he came out, scuffed and hurt, and he had visible bruises the next day in class." He thought for a few seconds, then recognition jumped out at him.

"OH! Oh oh oh oooohhhh. _That._ I follow you." I clicked right into place. With what she said, colored as it was though the goggles of her crush, coupled with the fact that she knew he knew that Tsukune was a human, and her disease was perfectly understandable, and reinforced his satisfaction with his decision. "That wasn't me who did it, and it really was an accident."

"What did happen?" Sure, she should have asked that earlier, but she had been fixated on her fears then.

"Fight club. I got the go ahead to start it about a month ago, and now, 2-3 nights a week, we go out into a clearing in the forest, and beat the hell out of each other for fun and prestige for a while. The night you are talking about, I took Tsukune to watch the bout, and the combatants got a little overzealous, and caused one of them to be propelled into the spectators. No real injuries, apologies all around, everyone had a good time." She still looked worried, which Dominic mistook for skepticism. "If you don't believe me, ask Yukari, she fought that night, and saw the incident." In the face of this, Mizore decided that she had acted rashly, and had been very lucky so far.

"Oh. Well, then while it cannot make up for my action, I do wish to say that I am sorry." She gained a few more points with Dominic. It took a real gallant sort of person to look into the face of evidence and simply own up to when you are wrong. He waved it away.

"Again, let's just drop the whole matter. As I have said, I knew you had an issue with me, but rather then address it early, I let it stew, so it is still mostly my own fault. If you really _need_ some measure of comfort from this horrible mess, you did make out slightly worse in overall damage received then I did. I got the nurse to give me the rundown, and your internal damage has got to suck a lot harder than my scratches. I apologies for that too. I was trying to disable you quickly, without any serious harm, but, and I mean this is the best possible way, you can _really_ take a hit." Despite herself, she cracked a small smile at the compliment. Feeling good that he got her to smile, he continued on, trying to tie down as many loose ends as he could before the moment ended.

"Anyway, that was good work with the Dance Proposal, Mizore. Pretending you were willing to go with me will really throw Kurumu off the trail, and, if I know here, but the time we are out, we will either be legends, or a reasonable version of what I told her will be so ingrained in public knowledge, that even we will be unable to shake it." Mizore saw that he was giving her another out, and made a snap decision.

"I wasn't making it up." Mizore spent a lot of time watching people. She hadn't consciously known it when she had lobbed it to Kurumu, but, while she had been planning to attend dance, she had been planning to go it stag, loosely grouped with Moka, Kurumu, Yukari, and Tsukune. Not being an idiot, she had put together the messages written in what she had seen, even if she could not accept them in her heart. It was better than even money that Tsukune would not be asking ANY of them to the dance, but would just be attending with all 4 of them. Then the 4 of them would spend the whole time arguing over who got him, and none of them would have any fun.

She also knew, from observation, that if he could have asked one of them, there was little doubt that Moka would be choice number one. They could try and deny it all they wanted, but it could be seen in the way they looked at each other, the way he looked at her Full Vampire form, and even they way her blood reacted in his own body, only when Moka herself was threatened. Deep in the dark corners of her mind, she had the sneaking suspicion that the only reason Tsukune and Moka were not an official item right now (besides the fact that Kokoa might actually have killed him were that to happen) was because both of them cared enough about her, Yukari, and Kurumu that they were afraid to hurt them. So, Mizore would try something new.

"I will still go with you as your date to the Halloween dance, as long as you understand that you are fully committed to the fact that if Tsukune makes even the slightest hint that he wishes me to attend on his arm, that that is what is going to happen." Dominic was more than fine with that, because his own first hand observations had told him much of what Mizore's had told her.

"I'll even do you one better. If he looks like it might be a possibility, I'll throw my weight behind you, and push at him on your side too. Like I told Kurumu, a maybe is better the a no, and it's not like I have any others clamoring to be my escort for the night." His attitude for this, what any outsider would have seen as a strange, if not outright insulting condition, did not seem strange to either of them. Mizore, because she did not strictly care about Dominic's feelings on the matter, and Dominic, because he had been supplied another handy saying from his father. And, the fact that his father was a celebrated General, having fought Campaigns in both the Human, and Monster worlds, added extra weight to his words.

"Son, dealing with women is a lot like fighting a war. You plan, get supplies, train, manuver, manipulate, replan, attack, retreat, all of that stuff. But there is ONE key difference between the two. In war, it is possible for a man to achieve victory."

It was one of Dominic's closest held beliefs, and the power dynamic in his household reinforced the validity of the statement. The terms given were better then he could hope for, and he couldn't say he was disappointed in the outcome. Now, all he had to do was hope Mizore would keep her mouth shut about the facts for long enough for it to no longer matter, and deal with everything else as it came.

He smiled to himself as the two conversed, finally taking a chance to get to know one another while they waited for dinner to be served, or the nurse to come and sedate them back into a gentle rest.

**End 2**

**Alright. Not quite where I wanted this to end, but at 22 pages, and enough filler to round it out at "too long" I am calling it. Just want to get something out there before I get distracted.**

**To those who reviewed, thank you again, I tried to be upfront with this at the start, so those who have no interest in this type of thing could save their time.**

**By now, if you cannot tell, this is going to be a light Mizore/Original character work, which I did not feel should be stated ahead of time, as I feel the effect is lessened slightly if the first third is taken with that in mind. I am trying for organic, but I am also trying to pound corks in pre-set holes here, so sorry of some of it seems forced. Any glaring stuff, throw it in review form, and I'll see if I can grandfather it in the next (and likely conclusion chapter) and see if I can't bang it out into a more understandable degree.**

**Thanks for watching, folks, I appreciate it.**


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